Prince died from a fentanyl overdose

CNN is reporting that "Toxicology tests for Prince concluded that the entertainer died from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl, according to a report on his death by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office. Fentanyl, prescribed by doctors for cancer treatment, can be made illicitly and is blamed for a spike in overdose deaths in the United States. It's 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration."

Update: Prince did an awesome guitar solo in this version of When my guitar gently weeps.

Nanaimo RCMP officer charged with sexual assault

The Nanaimo New bulletin is reporting that a Nanaimo RCMP officer has been charged with sexual assault. Const. Ben Caram is accused of inappropriately touching another person while attending a social gathering. Touching in public is inappropriate but is a little different then full on rape like Tim Shields has been charged with. Time will tell.

David Giles' coaccused sentenced

Castanet is reporting that Kevin Van Kalkeren was sentenced in Vancouver on Friday to 16 years in prison, minus five years and seven months credit for pre-trial custody. In 2012, Van Kalkeren, a Hells Angels associate, was among a group of suspects charged with conspiracy to import a controlled substance and conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance. One down one to go. Now lets get the ringleader. Panama. 200 kilos of cocaine as payment for 500 kilos a month.

One year plus a day for Surrey murder

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that "One of two men charged in connection with a fatal stabbing in Surrey nearly two years ago has been convicted of assault. Tyson Darryl Cole, 29, was charged with manslaughter in the death of 63-year-old Donald William Deweyn. During an appearance in provincial court in Surrey last week, Cole was convicted of the lesser included charge of assault causing bodily harm. According to court records, he was sentenced to time served plus a day in jail, and a year of probation. Cole spent more than a year in custody before his conviction."

"At about 5 a.m. on July 25, 2014, Deweyn was stabbed during an altercation with two males in a parking lot near 106th Avenue and 135A Street. Deweyn was taken to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries less than 30 minutes later.Deweyn was a retired millworker, a widower and homeless at the time of his death, though he was staying in the area. Deweyn had no criminal record and no negative contact with police. "

This once again highlights the exploitation of the homeless on the infamous Surrey strip that has been in the news. One year plus a day for murder is a disgusting insult to human dignity. Two guys were arguing with a homelssman on the Strip and stabbed him. What do you think the odds are they were arguing about a drug debt? They sure didn't kill him for his wallet. He was homeless. Yet both suspects had a long history of threats and theft. Robbing the homeless on welfare day is nothing new either. They stabbed Donald Dewey in the early morning hours of Friday July 25th 2014. Right after Welfare Wednesday.

The victim Donald Deweyn was a retired millworker, a widower and homeless at the time of his death. Deweyn once owned a property in New Westminster that was foreclosed upon in October 2011. This was a retired millworker who ended up homeless after they foreclosed his property. Giving the homeless drugs, then beating the life out of them for payment is predatory yet the victim had no criminal record. One year plus a day for murder is an outrage.

Dylan Dempsey, Tyson's coaccused was found guilty of uttering threats last month but the crown filed a stay of proceedings on the assault with a weapon charge. These are repeat offenders.



Tent city plagued by violence

Surrey and Vancouver Devils extort more money from the public purse

The Mayors's glutton council want to raise taxes again to pay for Translink expansions after that failed referendum on raising sales tax to pour more money into the over budget a billion dollars a year fiscal disaster. These two nutcases should be in jail. Linda Hepner is just taking up when Dianne Watts left off continuing the largest debt in the city of Surrey's history what with her Ivory Tower and her all expense paid junkets and all. Gregor Robertson is just as bad. Insisting we expand Translight before they balance it's budget. They already burn an extra billion dollars a year in a regional gas tax and they still want more because they insist on expanding it when it sucks and they give away a million free rides every year.

Earlier this month the Vancouver Province reported that "The City of Vancouver appears to have breached its procurement policy after Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson reportedly approved a contract worth almost $95,000 for a prominent supporter of his party, according to a legal expert."

Why was the contract for the Evergreen line, which we don't need because Translink sucks, given to SNC-Lavalin after it was banned from world contracts due to it's involvement with corruption and fraud. Giving them the contract was a criminal act. Now they want more money above the billion extra dollars a year they already burn simply because when you're a glutton, enough is never enough. Notice the new Translink CEO was nowhere near this one. He's too smart for that. He has business sense. These two devils do not. They are gluttons out of control that need to be restrained for the public good. Why would we toll the Lions Gate bridge after it was already tolled and paid for? Selling crack is not a Charter Right but mobility rights sure are.

"Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said she was concerned the mayors were backing down on their stance against increasing property taxes after 'we stood that line for a long time,' while looking to slap more fees on drivers - especially in communities south of the Fraser River where they don’t have the transit services in place." Indeed. Keep her, fire Hepner and Robertson. It's that simple.

Delta MLA Walter Davidson was right - scrap the GVRD and the Mayors glutton counsel. It's a costly bureaucratic and ineffective organization. We already have a provincial government.

VPD Officer shoots knife wielding suspect in the leg

The Vancouver Sun posted some pictures from that police shooting in East Vancovuer May 24th a witness took on their cell phone. This story has a happy ending. She put one in his leg not in his chest. You don't always have to shoot to kill. Just like with the suicidal man in Safeway.

Hey lady, here I come.



Ouch. You shot me. Why the f*ck did you do that? That's police brutality.

You charged me when I had my gun drawn dumb ass.



I guess it could be worse. At least you put one in my leg and not my chest.



I couldn't see the knife but the fact that he charged her with her gun drawn means shooting him in the leg is well within reason because even if he was unarmed he could have grabbed the gun.



I think I can see the knife now. Since he was bleeding from the stomach in what appears to be a self inflicted wound he clearly appears to be on something. Shooting him in the leg showed professional self control and restraint. Well done. Very different from the Hudson Brooks case.

Canadian Ambassador insults Ireland

I have a few stories to catch up on but I just wanted to pause on this one to give us a chance to reflect in case there was someone out there I have not yet offended. The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland is in the news after tackling a protester in Dublin. We have to pause and reflect on how outrageous and offensive this ceremony was on Irish soil. This wasn't in London, this was in Dublin. This is like the Nazis having a ceremony in France mourning the loss of its soldiers when it invaded France or North Korea holding a ceremony in South Korea mourning the loss of its soldiers when it tried to invade South Korea. It is freaking offensive. Sure soldiers are people too and everyone wants to remember those who died fighting for their country but if you don't want your soldiers to die don't invade another county.

All the Protester said was this is an insult and it bloody well was. If you want to have a ceremony in England remembering soldiers that were killed when you invaded another country have at it but don't do it on sovereign soil. It is insanely offensive. That's like the Protestants marching through Catholic areas in Northern Ireland on the 12th of July throwing it in their faces that they lost some battle back in 1690 which somehow gives them the right to remove all Catholics civl liberty today.

Do we have any idea what the Easter Uprising was? We all get upset when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait but that is exactly what England did to Ireland. They invaded a sovereign state just like Hitler or North Korea did. During Easter in 1916 when the world was opposing Germany's invasion of Europe and was silent on England's invasion of Ireland, a group of noble men took the Post Office and struck for freedom. Have you read the inspired contents of the Irish Proclamation the founding fathers were executed for signing? It is worth reading.

On behalf of Canada I would like to formally apologize to Ireland for this offensive disregard for their liberty. Peace begins by respecting the struggle for freedom. Erin go Bragh. Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Kamloops RCMP officer charged with selling cocaine

The National Post is reporting that "A former Kamloops police officer has been charged with three counts of cocaine trafficking — with allegations she was selling the drugs while still employed as a Mountie. Randi Love, who has since retired from the RCMP, is accused of dealing cocaine on three occasions last June, while still a member of the national police force. According to court documents, the 40-year-old allegedly trafficked cocaine on June 13, June 22 and June 26. KTW has learned Love retired from the RCMP in recent months after discovering she was the subject of a drug-trafficking investigation." CFJC Today article.

As we recall, the Chief of police in Merit pleaded guilty to stealing and using cocaine from an evidence locker. A Burnaby RCMP officer was sentenced to 14-months in jail for stealing a kilogram of cocaine from a police exhibit locker in the spring of 2011.

Surrey drug bust

Speak of the devil. The Surrey now is reporting that "Surrey RCMP's drug unit arrested eight suspects Wednesday in Surrey and are looking for four more in connection with an investigation into dial-a-dope drug trafficking in Surrey and Richmond." Just when we observed none of these drug busts ever happened in Surrey. Bill Fordy must have asked the gang task force to do a bust in Surrey so he didn't looks so bad. Mind you it's pretty hard for him not to look like and idiot when he is dancing naked after he set fire to some toilet paper hanging out of his ass.

The question we need to keep asking is why do they spend all that time and energy conduction an investigation into a dial a dope operation when there are drug dealers selling crack in public outside the Front Room in Surrey? Why do they let them do that? Those are the ones exploiting the homeless not the dial a dope operations.

Fraser MacRae was a real man. Bill Fordy never came close.

Canada Arms China's nuclear Sub

Welcome to another day in the Twilight zone. The Guardian is reporting that China to send nuclear-armed submarines into Pacific amid tensions with US. Who the hell do you think gave Communist China the materials and the technology to arm those nuclear missiles on that sub? Canada did. First it was Jean Chretien's sale of military weapons and CANDU reactors to the Communist dictatorship. Then Stephen Harper did the time warp and thought selling China nuclear reactors was a good idea. It's not like they would ever use it for the wrong purposes or arm any terrorist organizations in the world or anything like that. Which once again forces us to ask ourselves which side are we on?

Let's not forget how Stephen Harper sold Communist China our oil rights. He didn't just sell them oil, he sold them our oil rights. That means every time we fill up at the pump we are funding the military expansion of a Communist dictatorship. Stephen Harper was more of a Communist than Pierre Elliot Trudeau ever was. History has recorded that. Guess who got the contract for CANDU reactors in China? SNC-Lavalin. I kid you not. The same criminals that got the Evergreen line after they were banned from world projects for corruption and money laundering.

Shootings in Abbotsford and Peachland

The Abbotsford News is reporting that Police watched a guy on a stolen motorcycle drive eraticalty and crash the motorcycle. The rider fled the scene but police found a fanny pack on scene with almost $1,100 cash, a loaded pistol, street drugs (including heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine, methamphetamine and unknown drugs), and identification of the arrested man. I guess that's one for the gangsters' fail army. The suspect was well known to the police.

Guy on a stolen motorcycle caught with gun and drugs

1130 News is reporting that there were shots fired between vehicles in Abostford last night around 8:30 p.m. on McCallum Road and Switzer Avenue (just south of South Fraser Way). Shell casings were found at the scene

Kelowna Capital News is reporting that there was a shooting in Peachland last Thursday when a man was shot in the leg on a rural property.

Steven Skinner arrested in Venezuela

CBC is reporting that "Venezuelan police have arrested a Nova Scotian man who left Canada shortly before being charged with murder in 2011. Steven Skinner, 43, faces a second-degree murder charge over the killing of 20-year-old Stacey Adams in the Halifax area. " I was wondering why the traffic on an old post I made about him was off the charts. A blog reader finally wrote in and said he was arrested. I'm not sure about his affiliations. He was a MMA fighter.

CBC is reporting that in 2006, two clothing stores owned by Skinner were firebombed within an hour of each other. One of the men charged with arson in the fires was Cory Melvin, the younger brother of Halifax crime figure Jimmy Melvin Jr.

The Chronicle Herald reported that "Melvin, a notorious Halifax crime figure, was arrested in July and charged with first-degree murder in the February 2009 shooting death of Terry Marriott Jr., who belonged to a rival gang." It doesn't name the gang but describe the feud between the Melvins and the Marriotts who used to sell crack together then split and became rivals.

The article states Jimmy Melvin Sr worked for the Hells Angels back in 1992 when he was caught trying to off load a spanish vessel loaded with three tones of cocaine. In 2000 a member of the Marriott family was charged with the murder of former Hells Angels associate William St. Clair Wendelborg. December 2001 Jimmy Melvin Sr was arrested along with Hells Angels members and associates when the Halifax clubhouse was raided for drug offences.

That would imply Skinner is a HA rival but Venezuela kinda sounds like HA protection. In the book Road to Hell, it claims Larry Pace (Lars) killed William Wendelborg in a contract hit ordered by Wolf Carroll’s associate Paul Wilson. Lars is the guy living in Kelowna now. So that hit was for the Hells Angels not against them. The HAs must be working with both groups in Halifax. Locals are under the impression Skinner got his HA patch in 2011.

Rental housing disappears in Metro Vancouver

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Low-cost rental housing disappears across Metro Vancouver. This is the first factor in the tent city crime plague. Housing is a genuine concern. Adding drug addition to that makes it untreatable. Global is News is confirming a Vancouver Province report that the high cost of housng is causing young families to leave Vancouver.

Tent city plagued by violence

The Times Colonist is reporting that "Victoria councillors have unanimously approved spending up to $113,000 in additional policing funds to deal with increasing crime and violence in the neighbourhood surrounding the tent city on the courthouse lawn. Acting Police Chief Del Manak painted a grim picture to city councillors of drug use, violence and intimidation in and around tent city because street gang members have infiltrated the encampment. 'The site is clearly not safe,' he said. Manak said police officers are regularly met with aggression at tent city; both residents and service providers are intimidated and many neighbours worry for their safety."

This is a common theme we are seeing repeat itself. Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey, Maple Ridge - all have areas where the street gangs are exploiting and brutalizing the homeless so they can make money from addiction that results in a huge amount of violent crime.

The Victoria police chief said both residents and service providers are intimidated and many neighbours worry for their safety. This is very true. Service provides is referring to sex trade workers like Dianne Rock and Janice Shore where the drug dealer becomes the pimp and take everything they make not just a percentage. There is nothing consentual about it.

There are two problems on the table not just one. Housing is a legitimate concern. Yet the cause is lost when it is overcome and exploited with open drug abuse. Hal Hannon from Breaking the code nailed it in a post he made entitled Why Tent City Has No Solution.

Hal states Addiction is relentless:

"Have you ever supported a drug habit? I have. I supported my ex-roommate’s addiction for fifteen years. It cost me between $3,000 and $5,000 a month, whatever I could make available. Had I made more available, she would have wasted that on drugs too. Multiply that by the masses who inhabit tent city and those waiting for a spot to pitch a tent. I can assure you that when a lifestyle is driven by addiction there is never enough money. Without enough money, tent city has no solution. Every effort to help them will be misused to support their drug habits I am not saying every tenter is an addict. I am saying that some ninety percent of them are."

Hal has a very valid point. However, I am saying there is a solution. Arrest the drug dealers exploiting the homeless not the drug addicts. Unless we do that we are enabling and supporting the violence exploiting them. Then we can devote some of the resources we spent on harm promotion on housing instead. People need homes not drugs.

Provincial government shafts Surrey Schools

The Surrey Leader nailed it. More specifically Kevin Diakiw did. I can't find the article online but the printed edition has an inspiring article that states residential growth in Surrey contributed $585M to BC coffers over last decade then points out they only devoted 18.4% of that to building new schools. It's not surprising that article isn't available online. It was quickly replaced with a Christy Clark Corporate spin and photoshoot announcing new schools. Better late than never.

Recently there has been a lot of hype in the media about how Surrey has to slow down it's new construction because there aren't enough schools. Then I start thinking wait a minute, building new schools is a provincial budget not a civic budget. Then we hear that some kids in Surrey might have to be bussed into Vancouver to go to school because there isn't enough room in Surrey. But we discover that Vancouver is facing the possibility of closing schools that are full. Why? To save money because of their being over budget.

Once again we see the ugly face of the BC Hydro fraud reveal itself. In Christy Clark's' fudge it budget she said she was going to balance the budget by extracting a dividend from BC Hydro knowing full well that was a lie. The Campbell government created the BC Hydro crisis and their ballooning deficit made it impossible for Christy Clark to extract a dividend to fix her fudge it budget. Instead they had to lend the money to BC Hydro to pay the dividend they didn't have to *balance* Christy's budget.

The real crisis was created by the one and only Gordon Campbell who privatized the power brokers that sell power to the public company at above market rates so his campaign contributors could literally make a fortune off the taxpayers back. If he hadn't done that, BC Hydro's debt would not be ballooning out of control and we could in fact have extracted a dividend from them to balance the budget and fund more schools. This is the same fraud that created the Greek Financial Crisis. What was public money became private then disappeared. Buyer Beware.



BC Hydro's Amazingly Bad Deal for Ratepayers

The Tyee reported that "Not only had B.C. Hydro agreed to buy three times the power requested in the tender, it had done so at locked-in prices far above projected market rates. We give big firms $15 billion. We get higher prices, no assets, no guarantee of supply."

Financial Fraud at BC Hydro

The Northern Insights bog reported that: "In fiscal year 2015, BC Hydro purchased 13,377 GWh of electricity from independent power producers for $1,064,000,000 ($79,540 per GWh). In the same period, BC Hydro sold 14,020 GWh to large industrial users for $748,000,000 ($53,250 per GWh). In other words, each GWh of power purchased from IPPs was resold for $26,290 less that it cost. However, the loss was not limited to $352 million since the utility had to pay distribution, administration and other overhead costs in addition to the power acquisition price."

How BC Hydro Wound Up $76 Billion in Debt

The Watershed Sentinel reported that "By 2015, BC Hydro had 105 operating projects on contract, nominally capable of 18,902 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy, with 3,098 GWh to come from 23 IPP projects still in development. In 2015 it purchased 13,377 GWh of energy at a cost of $1,064 million. That is 24 per cent of BC Hydro’s domestic supply at 76 per cent of its cost of power; $79.54 per megawatt hour (MWh), compared to $8.11 per MWh for power from BC Hydro’s dams. This describes the haemorrhage of cash which is now flowing out of ratepayers’ pockets through BC Hydro to IPPs. The contractual commitments add up to $54 billion over 56 years."

Note: If you move to Surrey and your kids can't get into a school they can always sign up for Surrey Connect online. Evidently it's called SAIL now - Surrey Acadamy of Innovative Learning. That would make a lot more sense then bussing it all he way into Vancouver every day.

Health Canada approves prescription heroin and GMO Salmon

It's pretty clear that the next criminal organization we have to deal with is Health Canada. It's bad enough that the methadone program has become grossly abused. Now they're going for the full monty. They're letting "doctors" prescribe heroin. I kid you not. Who's going to fund that - taxpayers? You can't get an MRI or cancer treatment but you can get free heroin? That is insane and evil. There is nothing compassionate about it. Bankrupting our sacred medical program to promote addition. That will burn tax dollars faster than a forest fire.

I'm not the only one that thinks Health Canada is a criminal organization. Like Vancouver Coastal Health, they have proven they have no regard for promoting health. They are simply engaged in harm promotion and enable addiction. People need homes not drugs. They should be handing out sandwiches instead of free crack pipes. Our good intentions are creating a lot of misery and funding the gang war. Handing out free heroin at Insite is wrong.

Dr. Colin Mangham lost his job for opposing the insanity surrounding Insite. Turns out there is big money to be had in harm promotion within the pharmaceutical industry. John Volken runs an amazing detox centre in Surrey where he not only helps people get off drugs but he also teaches them life skills and gives them a job at Price Pro as well. He can't get government funding because he helps addicts get off drugs instead of turning them into lifetime methadone addicts. For all the money the government is pouring into organized crime and harm promotion, they could be funding more housing instead. That would be a much healthier solution.

As for genetically modified salmon, give me a break. Anyone with a brain can see that is not good for you. I didn't even know what GMO was until I met a large group of locals in Kelowna objecting to it at Stephen Harper's visit. Injecting pesticide into food is not healthy. It's killing the bee population which is shooting ourselves in the foot. Well GMO salmon is worse.

The Council of Canadians opposes the approval of genetically modified salmon for sale as food in Canada. They are a credible NPO. If they approve genetically modified salmon for sale, they need to label it as such and let consumers decide. That is the only logical solution. Health Canada is a criminal organization working against the best interest of Canadian taxpayers.

Ip Man 2 Update: Mike Tyson in Ip Man 3

I just realized that not only has Ip Man 2 been released but it's also on Netflix. It's very well done. I made reference to the first Ip Man movie with Donnie Yen in a previous post. I like Wing Chun. I have mad harsh respect for the arts. The most stirring message from this movie is the importance of respecting the dignity of others. Nobody likes a bully. On that note I found two more inspiring quotes. The first is from one of Ip Man's students, the infamous Bruce Lee.



The other is from the Dalai Lama himself.



Update: I not sure how historically acurate Ip Man 2 is. It seemed more like a fictional remake of Rocky 4 where he takes on the Russian after Apollo fails only in reverse. Likewise in the first movie it appears that the big fight between Ip Man and a Japanese general simply never happened in real life. Ip Man went to Hong Kong in 1949 to flee the Communist uprising IRL becasue he was an officer in the rival political party, the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party.

I will note that both Ip Man movies are in Cantonese not Mandarin. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong. Mainland China is trying to kill the language and replace it with Mandarin. Perhaps the hidden meaning behind the movie is to stand up to all bullies both foreign and domestic. Peace.

Yo! Mike Tyson is in Ip Man 3! David and Goliath hits the big screen. It's on DVD.



Whoa, it looks like Dr Smythe is right in that the Communist government of China had an influence in the production of the movie which may explain why it is so historically inaccurate. I was watching the opening credits for another Donnie Yen movie called Special ID and saw a very suspicious looking logo for the China Film Co Ltd. Wikipedia claims that the China Film Group Corporation is the largest and most influential state-owned film enterprise in China. According to Forbes it is a state monopoly that all imported films have to work with. I still think Ip Man is a great movie as long as you realize it is pure fantasy and is not historically accurate.

Burnaby fentanyl lab busted

The Surrey Leader is reporting that Delta Police busted a fentanyl drug lab in a Burnaby condo and seized over 16 kilograms of cocaine and heroin. They also seized nine firearms and two noise suppressors, over 100 kilograms of cutting agents, more than 4,500 oxycodone or oxycontin pills, more than a kilogram of methamphetamine, and 125 grams of pure fentanyl were seized. Well done. Fentanyl is deadly. Methamphetamine is crystal meth.

CBC posted pictures of how filthy it was. $1.5 million was also seized. Meanwhile back on the ranch, Surrey logged it's 40th shooting on Wednesday. Kevin Diakiw put out a thought provoking article on mental illness and drug addiction. It's an old series but I just noticed it and find it timely.

Fraser MacRae was a Rock Star

Yesterday I saw a cop on a quad outside the Front Room. Now that's what I'm talking about. Several years ago I was at Surrey central before they got rid of the crack dealers there and Surrey's awesome Police Chief at the time, Fraser MacRae, held a huge comunity policeing display right at crack central. He had a giant mobile command centre roll in with numerous auxiliary police officers on quads coordinating a concise community response to crime in Surrey. He was the exact opposite of Bill Fordy in every way.

Fraser MacRae was a Rock Star like John McKay, the VPD ninja was. Bill Fordy on the other hand is a flaming idiot. Bill Fordy was not an ace interrogator. He was a bumbling idiot on the Pickton investigation that was too busy sexually harassing Catherine Gallagher to do his job. He hasn't changed. He's one of the FOCERS - Friends of Craig Callen who is the root of the sexual harassment problem at the RCMP in British Columbia.



Bringing back the quads in Surrey is a good thing. Yesterday they were still kicking the cat in the sense that they were harassing the prolific offenders not the crack dealers but it is certainly better than doing nothing. I understand the math. A handful of prolific offenders are responsible for a majority of the crime. Harassing the prolific offenders prevents crime. I get it.

However, the real predators outside the Front Room on the strip are the crack dealer who brutalize the homeless on a daily basis. The prolific offender is stealing to pay back his dealer. If he doesn't do that, his dealer with beat the life out of him like they did to Janice Shore. If we really want to address the problem we get tough with the crack dealers not the addicts. Reducing the number of addicts reduces the crime and violence. That is the New York model. I saw it.